Marine Petrosyan Explains in Her New Book Why She Began to Criticize Levon Ter-Petrossian

Writer, publicist and former member of the Armenian National Congress (HAK) Marine Petrosyan’s book launch took place Wednesday at Bureaucrat bookstore in Yerevan. Petrosyan’s two recently published books are titled (in Armenian) Salad with Fire, a collection of poetry, and Red Bill, a collection of articles.

Speaking to Epress.am, Petrosyan mentioned that this collection of poetry differs from those before it by its ability to captivate readers through emotion.

“I felt that these poems better maintain the connection with the reader; they are more emotive, while those before weren’t so captivating for the reader. In poetry, there’s more of a connection to life; there are also personal and political poems,” she said.

Speaking about the Red Bill, Petrosyan said the articles contained within the book very clearly depict the change in her political views and explains the reason for the change.

“Many ask [me] why this change took place, since I used to write in [local opposition newspaper] Haykakan Jamanak [“Armenian Times”] and I defended [HAK leader] Levon Ter-Petrossian’s viewpoint, then I became one of Ter-Petrossian’s sharp critics. With this book, I clearly show how I began to write on political matters, why I defended Ter-Petrossian and why I began to criticize [him]. It seems to me, my views haven’t changed — my expectations have changed. My expectation hasn’t been justified and this is clearly evident in the book,” she said.

Weighing in on political developments in the country, Petrosyan said the establishment of the Free Democrats party made her quite happy. Khachatur Kokobelyan, who one year ago left his position as deputy chief of the Pan-Armenian National Movement (HHSh, one of the parties represented in HAK), is the party leader of Free Democrats, and former HHSh party leader Ararat Zurabyan has already joined the party.

“I think that this force has a great future,” she said.

Apart from writers and artists, political figures such as Armenia’s former foreign minister Alexander Arzumanyan and founder of the group Alliance of Online Liberals (also known as “3A”) Karapet Rubinyan were also present at the book launch.

Asked by Epress.am the reason for their presence at the book launch, Arzumanyan said, “The culture of buying books is being restored in Armenia, which is very important.”

Karapet Rubinyan noted that he feels distant from literature in life.

“But when they put stuff in Facebook, put links, I try to read [them]. I think those who work actively online, I think, do right. And sometimes they get up and come to buy a book. I and Mr. Arzumanyan have responded to such a Facebook invitation,” he said.